If you have everything apart, then by all means bite the bullet and get the
headers commercially coated, especially since they are difficult to get at in
the engine bay. But I made an interesting discovery years ago regarding high
temperature paint.
When I was preparing my competition Spitfire for a car show in the late '70s,
I brushed on a coat of Rustoleum silver paint, figuring that it would not last
beyond the show. But it did last. Later, when I had the engine out for a
rebuild, I wirebrushed and cleaned the header thoroughly and then applied a
highly touted "stainless steel" paint. That paint blistered within minutes of
startup.
On my rotary-powered cars, I used black stove paint in the '80s (haven't seen
a Warm Morning coal stove since the '50s), but it had to be reapplied
frequently. On my current one, I use Rustoleum "Hard Hat Brand" silver (color
no. V2115) spray paint, and it does not burn off. It's a dull silver coating,
and Rustoleum makes no high temperature claims for it. At full tilt,
rotaries' exhaust temps are about 50% higher than piston engines, say 1800
degrees. The so-called high temp paints only claim to last up to 1200
degrees. (Oh, and don't braze any rotary exhaust components together. You
can guess how I know.)
Jim Burruss
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